GRP arrested 35 human traffickers in Tripura in last 5 months

The Government Railway Police (GRP) arrested 35 human traffickers in the last five months in Tripura for facilitating illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas into India, officials said on Monday.

An official said that the 35 human traffickers, all Indians, were arrested by the GRP from different places in Tripura in the past five months.

On Sunday night, the GRP personnel with the help of the Border Security Force (BSF) jawans arrested five more human traffickers from Konaban in Sepahijala district.

The GRP also arrested over 115 Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas at the Agartala railway station and other places since August 1.

The BSF and the Tripura state police separately arrested a large number of human traffickers from different locations in Tripura.

Over the past five months, around 600 Bangladeshi nationals and over 63 Rohingyas were arrested by the GRP, various other security forces and Tripura Police from the Agartala railway station and different places in Tripura after they illegally entered India.

The BSF alone last year arrested 55 Rohingya migrants, 620 Bangladeshi nationals and 260 Indian nationals including human traffickers in various operations.

After the unrest began in Bangladesh in July, especially after the fall of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5, the infiltration into India's northeastern states increased to a large extent.

The Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, after arrest, told the security personnel that they intended to go to major metropolitan cities and other places in India in search of jobs.

The Rohingyas illegally entered India after fleeing their camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar where more than one million displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar have been living since 2017.

A BSF spokesman said that after the Bangladesh unrest began in June-July, the border guarding force has intensified its domination and operations along the 856 km India-Bangladesh border in Tripura to prevent infiltration, exfiltration, and trans-border crimes including smuggling of contraband.

The BSF, on a number of occasions, foiled several infiltration attempts by hundreds of Bangladeshi nationals comprising both Hindus and Muslims.